Personal Finance News Thursday 6/21

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

Your retirement health-care tab will run $240,000
Mistakes to avoid with your retirement health costs
By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Retirement health-care costs are enough to cause a severe anxiety attack. Even with Medicare benefits, a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2012 will spend at least $240,000 in retirement, according to the latest estimate from Fidelity Investments.

That doesn’t include long-term-care costs, over-the-counter medications and most dental costs.

Plus, that $240,000 estimate is based on average life expectancy for a 65-year-old—the husband living until age 82 and the wife until 85—but “average” means half of people live longer than that.

In other words, that 65-year-old couple may well need much more than $240,000.

No wonder almost half of wealthy Americans close to retirement said they are extremely worried about the effect health-care costs will have on their plans, according to a recent survey, by Harris Interactive for Nationwide Financial, of people with more than $250,000 in household assets.

“When you’re young, you can’t envision what it’s actually going to cost you,” said Henry Hebeler, a former Boeing executive who created AnalyzeNow.com, a retirement-planning website.

“As you get older, that’s when you start having the medical bills,” said the 78-year-old Hebeler. “I missed one day of work for sickness in 33 years at Boeing. And then I retired,” he said.

Despite being relatively healthy—he and his wife still ski, for instance—he’s been in the hospital a number of times since retiring, he said, including for knee surgery. He details some of his experiences on his website.

To read the entire article from MarketWatch:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-retirement-health-care-tab-will-run-240000-2012-05-09

Quote of the Day from Dave Ramsey.com:
Live as you will have wished to have lived when you are dying. — Charles F. Gellert

Please listen to the Dave Ramsey show live on WOR 710 from 2-4 PM EST. You can also listen to the 3rd hour 4-5 PM EST. at Dave Ramsey.com.